Descending to What’s Good
We haven’t posted in a while, it’s been a busy late winter and spring for two part-timers on this earth and church ministry project. So much good to see. But, we’ve done some pulpit supply and guest preaching along the way, so over the next few months we’ll share some sermons here for you to ponder.
A sermon is more than just a written text-it’s a physical, breath-moved event at a specific time and place on earth in a community and worship setting. It emerges from careful, ongoing listening for God within scripture, prayer, relationships, community, society and the wider creation.
And hopefully a sermon invites and encourages deepened prayer and contemplation, truthful conversation, energy, imagination, recognition, good next steps for persons and community grounded in God’s word and spirit, and faith, hope and love. I hope that sermons help us ‘see more’ of the world where God has placed us, and begin to discern honestly for ourselves, and in community, how God calls you to live.
So, may these sermons be practical encouragements in trusting in the presence of God, growing in prayer, and discerning step by step your faithful, compassionate, courageous work with God. (And maybe they can be just be further examples and contributions among many others to preaching, writing, speaking & listening that opens hearts to God’s restorative work in all creation.)
1st Sunday After Pentecost, May 31, 2026,Bethany Lutheran, Spanaway, WA
Putting the Lawn in Order, or Descending to the Good,
The Rev. Evan Graham Clendenin
Lectionary Readings Link
Tahoma, as revealed to one at Bethany Lutheran, Trinity Sunday 2026
Blessings and much thanks to you all on this 1st Sunday after Pentecost. Thank you for having me here to be with you for worship, to pray together, to celebrate the sacrament of communion together, and to listen for words of life together- in scripture read, and in all God sends us as guidance, nourishment, and energy for faithfully putting life in order.
And so I invite us all to listen again once more to this passage from 2nd Corinthians:
Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Cor 13:11
Put things in order. These words from the apostle Paul offer good guidance for you, I imagine, at this moment in the life of Bethany. Soon you welcome your new pastor! Blessings to her and her family as they move and settle in, get their feet under them, and blessings to you as you welcome her, open to discovering, learning and following what God is giving you church community for life together, now and in the coming days.
You’ve probably been putting things in order all along in a season of staff change, and maybe have some last minute matters to still put in order , or things to prepare, adjust, repair, mend, restore, complete. Put things in order.
Where is the visitation list? The binder of phone numbers, information about the church and neighborhood? How about tips on a good auto mechanic, counselor, doctor, or places to pick mushrooms? Maybe preparing some meals, or other ways of showing welcome and openness to the new person arriving as your pastor. You meet her part way, as she arrives, settles, and reaches out to begin to get to know you and this place. This all takes time, so I pray for you to receive patience and compassion as the new relationship begins.
And maybe you are also putting your lawn in order. Who does the lawn-care around here? You put in a lot of work, attention and time to tend all this beautiful ground. Trees, playground, raised beds, landscaping, pioneer cemetery, historic site, and of course, a few acres of grass, green grass. When I was here back in April, I enjoyed looking around the grounds. Now, I didn’t find any camas out there, but I read the historical sign about a group of settlers harboring native people against persecution and trumped-up prosecution. I saw hallowed cemetery ground, open to sunlight, growing with grass, flowers and wonderful native ‘garry oaks’.
And I imagined more garry oaks, and native grasses, and camas lilies growing there. I imagined inviting friends and neighbors, reaching out to local tribes, to re-discover together how to put in order a native oak savannah as an honor of this place and those whose lives throughout time are part of it.
Now my dream for you may not raise any sparks here, but maybe you can accept it as a way to say that God, in whose image and likeness we are made and restored, healed, put in order- God puts things in order for living life.
God gives and God restores an order to places and people, a life-giving pattern of beauty and goodness, beyond any one creatures ability to understand it, but not beyond our ability to be part of its life, its deeper grounds of peace. God goes out, looks and thinks about how to help life grow well here.
I’m not making that up! Just read the scripture. On the third day, God puts in order the earth’s capacity for green growth and seed-bearing:
Then God said, “Let the earth grow-up with grass, grass with seeds, and every kind of fruit trees whose fruit have seeds.” And so it was. The earth grew up green: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.
God puts in order, but to do so, God gets down low, close to the ground, and looks to see the good there. And you and I can also get down close to the ground to look for the good to grow there.
Look…like someone gathering camas bulbs from the oak prairie, who distinguishes the nutritious from the poisonous, the 6-pointed purple-blue flowers yielding not only seeds, but edible bulbs sweet when you roast them.
Look… like a cascade foothill diary farmer looks to assess the pasture and hay, and to just delight in the dewy grass and three-leafed clovers.
well, these are the allegheny foothills, but this grass feeds dairy cows…
We all can look… as we sit, stand, get down close to behold the simple grass receive their sacraments of life, drinking sunlight and eating carbon dioxide, turning all this into a gift that energizes the soil, animals, and the whole, very good creation.
And when we get down and look, we are doing what God has made us to do. To get down, get down close with the grass and creatures and see them with the eyes God gives to us as participants in the divine life. We descend, get down low, close to the plants and soil. We don’t master or dominate it. We descend, as John and Jesus and so many disciples went down to the river Jordan. We descend, get down close with the creatures, accept the baptism they offer us, receive the light of Christ they shine for us.
And we are sent out as disciples of that light, that energy, that pattern of life we have been given in faith by a loving God. And day by day thru the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the community of the Holy Spirit we can put it in order a place for life where we are, at home, at church, on the ground where we are given to be for a time.
Expanding Our Reach
Wild Indigo Guild in Olympia, WA
For many years I’ve worked as a part time director of Garfield Community Farm. Evan and I actually worked together to get the farm started way back in 2008. The farm is a place based non-profit, committed to one neighborhood and three acres of land and the people who visit these three acres. Wild Indigo Guild is our work to expand the message and work of growing food, caring for land and seeing God’s creation restored through communities of faithfulness. Instead of one locale we have many, instead of one community we work with many.
This month we were involved in a retreat with several Episcopal churches spread up and down the Puget Sound in Washington State. All of these churches are developing new plans to work together to bring about restoration on their communally owned land. Until now almost all of our work has been in the Allegheny plateau where Pittsburgh is rooted. We’re expanding our reach!
We had a wonderful time discussing ideas and sharing our experience here in Pittsburgh with these folks of the Diocese of Olympia. As we worked together to dream of new ways that a Centre Guild might form in the future and how individual churches could partner to bring about more positive change we also reveled in the goodness of Creation along the waters and foothills of the Olympic mountains. We hiked through a second growth forest. We ate a wonderful meal together. And we all learned from each other. As the work restoration continues in communities across western WA, we hope to be helpful partners.
Not only did we learn from each other, Evan and I (John) took time to plan for the year to come. We also took time to explore quite a bit, learning from the ancient wisdom of this beautiful place. While on a hike in the foothills just south of Olympic National Park we found so many wild and native plants growing together, many that much to share in way of human food and even more habitat for wild creatures.
In the understory of the dense fir, cedar and spruce forest we found Kinnickinnik, or bearberry (Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi) growing in and among them mosses and ferns.
We also found herbaceous plants like this wild ginger.
In the shrub layer we found things like huckleberry and salal, both food producers.
On our final day together Evan took me to see some of his favorite trees in the cemetery near his house, such as this huge hybrid chestnut. Some of the big old trees are pure American chestnut and others have mixed European and American genes. Evan has foraged nuts from these trees and we have three year old saplings available in our new nursery! They’re very interesting specimens, with good quality nuts.
We hope you’ll support our work as we see God providing new opportunities in new places, from one side of this continent to the other!
Show Up, Pray, Organize, Dig,
In this time we must show up and get organized.
And we must make it our practice. Our contemplative practice.
We practice showing up and getting organized.
We practice showing up-
in grounded, compassionate witness to being made in the image of God
We practice getting organized-
realizing the truth that our being exists in webs of mutual interdependence.
We show up and get organized in order to exercise power-
energy for good and life given to us by God,
justice and compassion at work in, thru and beyond us.
We practice saying no to wickedness, cruelty, brutality, lies and greed.
We practice saying yes, tending the grounds of life-more- abundant.
In this time, John and I bid you to show up, get organized, and also to pray, nor neglect to dig in the garden. Find a place within and without re-connects you to the grace of heaven and earth. A garden, a green space, a vast reassuring silence deeper than chaos, that stills confusion and fear within a place of sanctuary, breathes life that is good, right, compassionate.
And in touch with the contemplative grace of heaven and earth, we practice to show up, and get organized. Politics is not all that different from other ways you know how to pray and get things done. Just like you were planting a garden or a tree with neighbors you want to get to know better, just like you were building a house to shelter, warm and welcome life for friends, neighbors and strangers in community, solidarity and mutual care. We show up and get organized, connected to the ground of life you share with others on earth.
Contemplation might be described as a renewing contact with the truth of your being made like others in the image of God. The fruits of it carry you into work and action that witnesses, protects, and seeks this truth with and for others. We bid you to make room for such in these times.
Show up for God the maker of true peace, and allow their presence to further organize your heart, mind and body in the likeness of love, wisdom and justice.
Find your ground of courage to show up somehow, and get more organized than you are, or help others to do so...make it a practice, step by step, not alone, do it again and again, pace yourself, rest, press on, pray, dig in, listen, with a deeper and clearer sense of God’s presence and life guiding you.
How?
Here are some ways and resources we offer humbly, knowing there is more, and trusting you will find what you need better where you are.
Get connected: Who can help you get better connected? A few organizations who provide good information, education, training, schedules, events and actions include these below. Just a start, so see what else you find that is solid and fits where you are.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Learn, Prepare, Train:
We’ll add links here for trainings for individuals and congregations about immigrant rights, interacting with law enforcement, de-escalation. But don’t wait for us, see what you find.
Offer Care and Help:
What might it be? mutual aid in you neighborhood, reaching out, setting up ways to stay in touch and communicate, volunteer with a local feeding program or food bank, assist with events. Shovel snow, offer rides, offer shelter, what else?
Advocate:
Write, call, meet with elected representatives, coordinate actions protests, witness, mass refusal, strike!
Follow, Lead and Accompany:
This takes courage, so go with someone else, and be prudent. Find a friend or someone you trust who knows the way better, if that will help you show up and get you act better together. Look for leaders, and trust your own mind too. Safety is not guaranteed, so as the scouts say, ‘be prepared.’ And dare we say, stay in touch with the deep peace of God and en-joy!
“Build houses and plant gardens:”
The biblical prophets have that to offer.
There is a war on the people and earth by the trump admin, racist reactionaries, and tech, oil and media billionaires. So we need to be in this for the long haul, and as we dig in, find life and delight for ourselves and others along the way.
So think with others about how you are able to build strong homes, churches, networks, neighborhoods, places of welcome, protection, care and life for yourselves and others for the coming days. Think about how the trees and gardens you will plant this year will feed and give life in the months ahead. And put what you think and hear into action.
For we know the truth that we are made in the image of God, and the divine life has placed us hear to tend the life of plants and soil, animals, forests, plains and oceans. (Genesis 1-2) To attend to the well-being and needs of the weak and poor, to neighbors and strangers, migrants and the unhoused, the younger and older, the afflicted. (The Bible Folks!) To seek our life with them and all the creation. (The Bible Again, Cover to Cover!) With them we “build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat of their fruits.” (Jeremiah 29:5)
In wilder, tended and human-built places of devotion, we renew in the breath of life and the image of God. And in living contact with this our divine center, we practice showing up and getting organized.
Woman Digging, Vincent Van Gogh